Engage 2020 Innovation Grants Case Studies

The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and The Philadelphia Foundation partnered to create the Engage 2020 Innovation Grants Program, an initiative to stimulate marketing innovation in the Greater Philadelphia region. The program offered 10 arts organizations 18-month grants of up to $75,000 that took place between 2010 and 2011.

The goal was to design and implement projects that addressed one or more of the findings of Research Into Action and help reach the long-term goal of doubling Greater Philadelphia’s cultural participation by the Year 2020.

All of the arts organizations that received grants had projects that the Cultural Alliance and the Philadelphia Foundation deemed “case study worthy,” that is, the work they did and the lessons they learned could be valuable to arts organizations across the country that grappled with similar dilemmas.

The following is a summary of how each Engage 2020 Innovation grantee organization sought to increase audience engagement, what they accomplished and what they learned that might be valuable to others seeking to do similar work.

First Person Arts is an organization that focuses on memoir and documentary art. Its best known program is its First Person Arts Festival, an annual event that features movie screenings, book readings, discussions and other events on memoir and documentary art.

The Philadelphia Mural Arts Advocates is a 27-year-old organization whose mission it is to create murals that connect artists to communities. Some 1,500 murals exist in the city and more than 20 percent portray an aspect of African American history or culture.